Hi Everyone!! This article will share Elder Brother Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of Gorillas in The Mist, Rain Rain Go Away and Ozymandias so, you can check these posts as well.
Elder Brother Questions & Answers
Question 1: What happened one day when the younger brother was running madly to grab hold of a kite?
Answer: The younger brother collided with his brother. His brother grabbed his hand and scolded him angrily for running with the ragamuffins after a one paisa kite. He reminded him that he was in class 8 and should have self-respect.
Question 2: What did the elder brother tell the younger one about experience and understanding? Mention with an example.
Answer: The elder brother told that he was five years older than him and even if the younger one came to his grade, he could never equal the experience he had of life and the world, even if he got an M.A., a D.Litt. or even a Ph.D. He further told that understanding didn’t come from reading books. Their parents had little education but they knew a thousand things better than the narrator and his brother.
Question 3: What effect did the elder brother’s words have on the narrator? What did he do after the realisation? In what way were the brothers reconciled?
Answer: The narrator was thoroughly shamed by his brother’s new approach. He came to know his own insignificance and a new respect was born in his heart for his brother. He accepted before his brother tearfully that the latter had every right to reprimand him. His brother embraced him and told that he liked flying kites too but as an elder brother, he could not go off track because he had to keep an eye on his younger brother.
Question 4: Read and answer the questions:
But it’s one thing to draw up a schedule, another to follow it.
(a) What kind of schedule had the narrator drawn up and on whose instruction?
Answer: The narrator drew a life destroying schedule. It only had time slots for studies comprising subjects like English, Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, English composition, translation and Hindi etc. He had to study from the crack of the dawn to eleven o’clock in the night and the time for play was entirely absent in it. Nobody had asked him to draw the schedule. He himself had prepared it, after getting a dressing down from his elder brother.
(b) Why was it hard for the narrator to follow the schedule? What were the main distractions for him?
Answer: It was hard for the narrator to follow the schedule because it had no time for play and it was life destroying. The books strained his eyes and he could not remember anything. The main distractions were the inviting green expanse of the playground, the balmy winds, the commotion on the football field, the exciting stratagems of the prisoner’s base, the speed and flurries of volleyballs which drew him mysteriously and irresistibly.
(c) What thoughts went through the narrator’s mind before he decided to draw up the schedule?
Answer: The thoughts that went through the narrator’s mind were that why he did not run away from school and went back home and why he would spoil his life fiddling with work that was beyond his capacity.
(d) Was the narrator able to follow the schedule? Why? Why not?
Answer: No, the narrator was not able to follow the schedule because he got over the mysterious and irresistible attractions which made him forget the life destroying schedule and the books that strained his eyes.
Elder Brother Questions & Answers
(e) Why did he get a dressing down from his elder brother?
Answer: The narrator got a dressing down from his elder brother because he left the hostel whenever he got a chance and went to the playground to play marbles or fly kites or just to meet a friend instead of sitting in the hostel room and study.
Question 5: Read and answer the questions:
When he heard the results, he broke down and cried. So did I.
(a) Who broke down and why?
Answer: The elder brother broke down because he had failed in the ninth-grade examinations despite killing himself with hard labour.
(b) How did the younger brother react to his brother’s failure?
Answer: The younger brother also cried as his pleasure in passing was cut by half. The thought also crossed his mind that if his brother failed once more, both of them will be in the same grade.
(c) What change came over the elder brother after he failed? How did the younger brother take advantage of it?
Answer: The elder brother became much gentler and stopped scolding the younger brother. The younger one grew in independence and stopped studying seriously. He found pleasure in flying kites.
(d) What happened one day when he was running madly to catch a kite?
Answer: While running madly to catch a kite, the narrator suddenly collided with his elder brother. His brother grabbed his hand and scolded him that he had no shame in running with those ragamuffins.
(e) What did the elder brother say about his role in the elder brother’s life? What was the narrator’s reaction to his elder brother’s words?
Answer: The elder brother said that he was five years older than his younger brother and even if he came to his grade, he could never equal the experience he had of life and the world even if he got an M.A., a Ph.D and a D.Litt. The younger brother felt thoroughly ashamed and came to realise his own insignificance. A new respect was born in his heart for his elder brother.
So, these were Elder Brother Questions & Answers.